Iowa Senator Tom Harkin says he’ll introduce legislation next week that would allow cancer-afflicted former workers at the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant in far southeast Iowa to get “appropriate compensation” for their ills. Adding former works to the “special exposure cohort” would qualify them for 150-thousand dollars from the federal government. A forum will be held Monday night in Burlington to answer questions for those former plant employees. Harkin says they’re deserving of the money.
He says only 38 former workers from the plant have gotten federal compensation but 575 Iowa workers with cancer have claims pending. He says “These Iowans served our nation in good faith. They worked in a dangerous situation. They shouldn’t have to wait any longer to be compensated.” Harkin says workers in similar situations in Kentucky and Ohio have already been properly compensated and he sees no reason Iowans should “be discriminated against.”
